What counts in marketing? USP, strategy and tactics

Ask five people what really counts in marketing and you may well get five answers. Keeping it to the bare minimum, what does count?

First, you must identify a customer need or problem. Think of this as the round hole that needs filling.

Second, you must develop an offering that fills the hole. Developing a solar powered bicycle is a fun, intellectual challenge for an engineer who likes biking. But doing so because you think people will buy it is another matter unless market research confirms your prototype truly has mass appeal. Environmentalists who push battery-powered cars don't understand this reality. A customer need that is a round hole cannot be filled with a square peg.

To succeed against the competition, your offering must have a unique selling proposition. That's at least one characteristic unavailable in the current marketplace. Without a USP, your venture is doomed.

About that competition -- if you think you have none, stop. Your prospects are currently filling their need somewhere from someone using something.

And never forget Competition 0. Competition 0 is inaction and inertia that some customers have. The classic example was Alexander Graham Bell. People told him "Alex, who are we going to talk to with this thing anyhow?" (By the way, Alex had no competition at the time.) The cellular industry is facing the same phenomenon right now in third-world countries.

Once you identify the USP, you must define strategy and stick to it. Strategy is the most important thing in marketing and the concept least understood. In fact, 90 percent of the people who walk around with "marketing" on their business cards cannot adequately define strategy. Typically it is confused with objectives and tactics.

Strategy answers this question: "OK, you've identified an audience, a need, an offering .... how are you going to meet your objectives and succeed?" The answer isn't advertising. It isn't trade shows. Those are tactics.

Strategy is discipline. Strategy is focus. Strategy is the religion, party line and mantra used by everyone from the receptionist to the loading dock crew to keep the company on track. Saturn emphasizes customer service, Pepsi spotlights youth appeal, President Clinton focused on the economy, Tylenol stressed stomach discomfort from aspirin, Domino's hammered home delivery, Samsonite showed indestructible suitcases. What will you focus on? Start with your USP.

If you are lucky, your strategy will win you the coveted equity of "position." Position is that little gland deep inside our psyche that regulates where neurons go. The position gland puts the neuron "Volvo" right up next to the neuron "safe family car." Other car makers have tried in vain for years to separate those two neurons.

Position can work against you, too. How does the neuron called "Yugo" sit in automotive psyche? In short, make sure the positioning gland always puts neurons together in your favor.

Strategy is essential, but then you have to do something with it. That's tactics: advertising, trade shows, direct mail, telemarketing, sales, literature, public relations and so on. Without the guidance of strategy, you will spend a fortune on tactics and wind up complaining that nothing works.

Other things also count. Your pricing had better be high enough to reflect both your USP and what the market will bear. Will you sell directly to end-users or go through specialists such as resellers, dealers or distributors? Lastly, it is all about getting sufficient inquiries that you can turn into qualified prospect leads that can be closed.

So, what really counts in marketing? A lot of things do. Not knowing what you don't know can lead to disaster, especially when adequate resources are available to help you count what really matters -- profits.

Roger S. Peterson is a Rocklin-based writer and consultant, president-elect of the American Marketing Association's Sacramento chapter and co-author of the AMA Handbook for Managing Business to Business Marketing. The association's April 8 meeting will feature its annual Excellence in Marketing Awards. Call 632- 1900, Ext. 111. The cost is $23 for members and $28 for nonmembers.